Ok, the infrared camera reads 0.02 arc-seconds, per pixel I guess. A website quotes distance to moon as 384,000 km. .02 seconds is .02 * 1/60 * 1/60 degrees, or 5.56 x 10^-6. The sine of this multiplied by distance equals the smallest feature that can be viewed: namely, about 37 meters. Concievably, a feature sqrt(2) of that can easily be seen, or 26 meters across. So it's not really possible with current visual viewing devices. Mind you that was the infrared device, I didn't look too hard to see if there was a visible spectrum spec.

The equipment I saw on the program segment showed a rather powerful green argon laser, beaming a generous diameter moonwards.

Thats right, but it aint faint, it comes back down through a casigrain telescope with a sensor and with the laser in the middle, its the exact same way they calibrate sats, and i dont beleive it can be done with the moon cos for 1, the moon isnt flat,( ok doesnt have to be but think in the mirror being perfectly alighned), 2 you need to reflect that beam exactly perfectly back to its source, trying to do that from somthing as far away as the moon is just about impossible. Trying to line up a 1/2 inch beam into a 1/2inch round hole perfectly so far away with both sources moving wouldnt be fun imo and the chances of getting that right is about the same chances as ET coming back to earth on his bike and giving u an ice cream. 3, both planets move and i can tell ya, FAST!

The way they mainly measure the distance with things is radar, time , and historical orbits, and yess the moon is coming closer or further, ( cant rember either!) and the sun is defininatley coming closer, hence why we are heating up not only from the ozone. We have about 4 billion years left on earth before the sun enlarges and engufs us, probally by the 2 billion mark or even before we are all toast and thats if we dont get eaten by a black hole beforhand!

Hubbel seeing the landing site? not sure, i dont think its got an imager with a high enough resolution, most of the images are colour enhanced or false colour radar images that they manipulate to become pictures, that and data converted into images.

I dont know if any of you guys are into direct reception of weather sats like noaa 12-17 poes sats but i am, and not even one of those could pick up a flag being only 400miles above the earth. If you guys are interested in receiving live images of the earth from sats let me know and maybe ill start a thread on it. You can place a mirror on your roof and see a starburst in the image though that only works on the sats that use radar, (sich).

Not having a dig here at anyone, just thought id mention that, all in good fun lol

Trev

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"Every technique can be used in a great many ways, but mastering it, thats what realy counts."

I was kind of interested in what the audio geeks had to say about this. I've watched my share of shows on this and I wouldn't mind hearing what others opinions are as well.

Cheers

Cal

Well from what ive read on the Burmuda Triangle, the mysterious ships that went missing got caught up in bubbles or somthing in the ocean due to tectonic plate movment, the bubbling overturned the ships, that and whirlpools. Dont laugh cos this was a recent study by leading scientists, maybe the same studying the moon?

Trev

__________________
"Every technique can be used in a great many ways, but mastering it, thats what realy counts."

Methane clathrate hydrate is a form of water ice that contains a large amount of methane within its crystal structure. Originally thought to occur only in the outer regions of the solar system where temperatures are low and water ice common, extremely large deposits of methane clathrates have been found under sediments on the ocean floors of Earth. Methane clathrates are common constituents of the shallow marine geosphere, and they occur both in deep sedimentary structures, and as outcrops on the ocean floor. Methane hydrates are believed to form by migration of gas from depth along geological faults, followed by precipitation, or crystallization, on contact of the rising gas stream with cold sea water.

The combination of low temperature and high pressure found at the bottom of Earth's oceans makes methane clathrates very stable. It is thought that as much as 20 times the current known reserves of natural gas may be contained within ocean-floor clathrate deposits, representing a potentially important future source of fossil fuel. The chief problem in using methane clathrate commercially is detecting it.

Methane clathrates remain stable at temperatures up to 18 °C. The average methane clathrate hydrate composition is 1 mole of methane for every 5.75 moles of water, though this is dependent on how many methane molecules "fit" into the various cage structures of the water lattice. The observed density is around 0.9 g/cm3. One liter of methane clathrate solid would therefore contain, on average, 168 liters of methane gas (at STP).

Sudden release of methane clathrate has been hypothesized as a cause of past climate changes, because methane is a greenhouse gas. Two events possibly linked in this way are the Permian-Triassic extinction event and the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum.